Platelet-activating factor (PAF) is a biologically active phospholipid synthesized by various cell types. In vivo and at normal concentrations of 10.sup.-10 to 10.sup.-9 M, PAF activates target cells such as platelets and neutrophils by binding to specific G protein-coupled cell surface receptors [Venable et al., J. Lipid Res., 34:691-701 (1993)]. PAF has the structure 1-O-alkyl-2-acetyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine. For optimal biological activity, the sn-1 position of the PAF glycerol backbone must be in an ether linkage with a fatty alcohol and the sn-3 position must have a phosphocholine head group.
PAF functions in normal physiological processes (e.g., inflammation, hemostasis and parturition) and is implicated in pathological inflammatory responses (e.g., asthma, anaphylaxis, septic shock and arthritis) [Venable et al., supra, and Lindsberg et al., Ann. Neurol., 30:117-129 (1991)]. The likelihood of PAF involvment in pathological responses has prompted attempts to modulate the activity of PAF and the major focus of these attempts has been the development of antagonists of PAF activity which interfere with binding of PAF to cell surface receptors. See, for example, Heuer et al., Clin. Exp. Allergy, 22:980-983 (1992).
The synthesis and secretion of PAF as well as its degradation and clearance appear to be tightly controlled. To the extent that pathological inflammatory actions of PAF result from a failure of PAF regulatory mechanisms giving rise to excessive production, inappropriate production or lack of degradation, an alternative means of modulating the activity of PAF would involve mimicing or augmenting the natural process by which resolution of inflammation occurs. Macrophages [Stafforini et al., J. Biol. Chem., 265(17):9682-9687 (1990)], hepatocytes and the human hepatoma cell line HepG2 [Satoh et al., J. Clin. Invest., 87:476-481 (1991) and Tarbet et al., J. Biol. Chem., 266(25):16667-16673 (1991)] have been reported to release an enzymatic activity, PAF acetylhydrolase (PAF-AH), that inactivates PAF. In addition to inactivating PAF, PAF-AH also inactivates oxidatively fragmented phospholipids such as products of the arachidonic acid cascade that mediate inflammation. See, Stremler et al., J. Biol. Chem., 266(17):11095-11103 (1991). The inactivation of PAF by PAF-AH occurs primarily by hydrolysis of the PAF sn-2 acetyl group and PAF-AH metabolizes oxidatively fragmented phospholipids by removing sn-2 acyl groups. Two types of PAF-AH have been identified: cytoplasmic forms found in a variety of cell types and tissues such as endothelial cells and erythrocytes, and an extracellular form found in plasma and serum. Plasma PAF-AH does not hydrolyze intact phospholipids except for PAF and this substrate specificity allows the enzyme to circulate in vivo in a fully active state without adverse effects. The plasma PAF-AH appears to account for all of the PAF degradation in human blood ex vivo [Stafforini et al., J. Biol. Chem., 262(9):4223-4230 (1987)].
While the cytoplasmic and plasma forms of PAF-AH appear to have identical substrate specificity, plasma PAF-AH has biochemical characteristics which distinguish it from cytoplasmic PAF-AH and from other characterized lipases. Specifically, plasma PAF-AH is associated with lipoprotein particles, is inhibited by diisopropyl fluorophosphate, is not affected by calcium ions, is relatively insensitive to proteolysis, and has an apparent molecular weight of 43,000 daltons. See, Stafforini et al. (1987), supra. The same Stafforini et al. article describes a procedure for partial purification of PAF-AH from human plasma and the amino acid composition of the plasma material obtained by use of the procedure. Cytoplasmic PAF-AH has been purified from erythrocytes as reported in Stafforini et al., J. Biol. Chem., 268(6):3857-3865 (1993) and ten amino terminal residues of cytoplasmic PAF-AH are also described in the article. Hattori et al., J. Biol. Chem., 268(25):18748-18753 (1993) describes the purification of cytoplasmic PAF-AH from bovine brain. Subsequent to filing of the parent application hereto the nucleotide sequence of bovine brain cytoplasmic PAF-AH was published in Hattori et al, J. Biol. Chem., 269(237):23150-23155 (1994). To date no nucleotide sequence for the plasma form of PAF-AH has been published.
The recombinant production of PAF-AH would make possible the use of exogenous PAF-AH to mimic or augment normal processes of resolution of inflammation in vivo. The administration of PAF-AH would provide a physiological advantage over administration of PAF receptor antagonists because PAF-AH is a product normally found in plasma. Moreover, because PAF receptor antagonists which are structurally related to PAF inhibit native PAF-AH activity, the desirable metabolism of PAF and of oxidatively fragmented phospholipids is thereby prevented. Thus, the inhibition of PAF-AH activity by PAF receptor antagonists counteracts the competitive blockade of the PAF receptor by the antagonists. See, Stremler et al., supra. In addition, in locations of acute inflammation, for example, the release of oxidants results in inactivation of the native PAF-AH enzyme in turn resulting in elevated local levels of PAF and PAF-like compounds which would compete with any exogenously administed PAF receptor antagonist for binding to the PAF receptor. In contrast, treatment with recombinant PAF-AH would augment endogenous PAF-AH activity and compensate for any inactivated endogenous enzyme.
There thus exists a need in the art to identify and isolate polynucleotide sequences encoding human plasma PAF-AH, to develop materials and methods useful for the recombinant production of PAF-AH and to generate reagents for the detection of PAF-AH in plasma.